Trained twice today and paid for it, in some ways, with my flagging performance during a ten-minute sparring session. For weeks, my mantra has been to quit when I'm ahead, to reach drop-dead fatigue AFTER training during a post-train conditioning workout like HICT. The idea being for weakness to remain 100% under my control in the training context.
But you don't know the edge until you test it, and with the prospect of not getting back on the mat until Monday, it seemed worthwhile to stick around for Friday's Live Training, even if there wasn't much left in the tank.
A good week on the mat. My training numbers are starting to creep up (back to 2.75 in the four-week moving average). This morning was essentially a private lesson with John since he was the only student to show up for Dawn Patrol. We worked on a couple of different entries into the DLR, which was a treat for me also since I almost never use the DLR in training.
The noon session was vigorous - a lot of drills out of side control (the turn to turtle and the scarf hold switch counter from Wednesday). During the Live Session I found myself working a lot of my older game from the top (handcuff and Flat Pass) from the closed guard, and even forcing the closed guard when my partner switched or tried to switch to an open guard.
This was ultimately a mistake, as it prevented me from working more thoroughly the Toreando pass game I've been wanting to focus on in the second half of 2013. It led to worse than that, by some measures. But at the end of the day, not pursuing the opportunity to attack the open guard and instead opting for what I thought at the time was an easier closed guard attack (the same closed guard attack I'd already used successfully three times in the session).
Train and learn. 162.7 on the scale at the end of the week. Ideally, this number will be 3% lower in a month or less.
